The Connected Discourses of the Buddha

by Bhikkhu Bodhi

  323 Verambhavātā. Spk: A strong type of wind, discerned at a height from which the four continents appear the size of lotus leaves.

  324 This verse and the next are at Th 1011-12 and It 74,22-75,3. Here I read with Be and Se appamāṇavihārino, as against Ee appamādavihārino. The latter, however, is found in all three eds. of Th 1011d; readings of It 74,25 are divided. Spk supports appamāṇa- with its gloss: appamāṇena phalasamādhinā viharantassa; “as he is dwelling in the measureless fruition concentration.” Th-a does not comment on the pāda at Th 1011, and the comment in It-a reads appamāda- in Be and appamāṇa- in Se.

  325 We should read pāda b with Se sukhumadiṭṭhivipassakaṃ as against sukhumaṃ diṭṭhivipassakaṃ in Be and Ee. The former is also the reading at Th 1012b and It 75,1. Spk: It is a subtle view because (it is reached) through the view of the path of arahantship, and he is an insight-seer (vipassaka) because he has arrived there after having set up insight for the sake of fruition attainment. Delighting in the destruction of clinging: Delighted with Nibbāna, called the destruction of clinging.

  326 The suvaṇṇanikkha and the siṅginikkha seem to be two different types of golden coin, the latter presumably of greater value than the former, or made from a superior species of gold. Spk glosses suvaṇṇanikkhassa as ekassa kañcananikkhassa , and siṅginikkhassa as siṅgisuvaṇṇanikkhassa.

  327 Janapadakalyāṇī. See below 17:22 and 47:20, and the famous simile at MN II 33,6-22.

  328 Cp. AN I 88,13-89,3. This sutta and the next seem to be quoting from AN II 164,4-22, where the Buddha names the “standards and criteria” for the four classes of his followers. Citta the householder was the foremost male lay disciple among the speakers on the Dhamma; see the Cittasaṃyutta (41:1-10). Hatthaka Āḷavaka was the foremost of those who propitiate an assembly with the four means of beneficence; see AN I 26,5-9 and AN IV 217-20, and I, n. 604.

  329 Khujjuttarā was the foremost female lay disciple among those who have learned much, Veḷukaṇḍakiyā (or Uttarā) Nandamātā the foremost of the meditators; see AN I 26,19, 21. Khemā and Uppalavaṇṇā, mentioned just below, were the foremost bhikkhunīs in regard to wisdom and spiritual power, respectively. Uppalavaṇṇā has appeared at 5:5, and Khemā gives a discourse at 44:1.

  330 See above n. 249.

  331 Spk: Its origin (samudaya): an individual form of existence together with past kamma, status as a son of good family, beauty of complexion, eloquence as a speaker, the display of ascetic virtues, the wearing of the robe, possession of a retinue, etc., are called the origin of gain and honour. They do not understand this by way of the truth of the origin, and so cessation and the path should be understood by way of the truths of cessation and the path.

  332 Spk: The pleasant dwellings in this very life (diṭṭhadhammasukhavihārā ) are the pleasant dwellings in fruition attainment. For when a meritorious arahant receives conjee, sweets, etc., he must give thanks to those who come, teach them the Dhamma, answer questions, etc., and thus he does not get a chance to sit down and enter fruition attainment.Spk’s identification of the “pleasant dwellings” with fruition attainment is certainly too narrow. The term usually means the jhānas, as at II 278,10-11.

  333 The three wholesome roots are nongreed, nonhatred, and nondelusion. Spk explains this to mean that the wholesome roots have been cut off to such an extent that Devadatta is incapable of taking rebirth in heaven or of achieving the path and fruit; it does not mean that his wholesome roots have been permanently eradicated. The next two suttas state the same meaning using different terms.

  334 This sutta and the following one also occur at Vin II 187-88 in inverted order, without the homily on gains, honour, and fame, and with the verse at the end. See too AN II 73. The verse = I, v. 597, also spoken with reference to Devadatta. On the simile of the mule just below, Spk says that they mate her with a horse. If she becomes pregnant, when her time for delivery arrives she is unable to give birth. She stands striking the ground with her feet. Then they tie her feet to four stakes, split open her belly, and remove the foal. She dies right there.

  335 Pittaṃ bhindeyyuṃ. PED, s.v. pittaṃ, says the passage is unclear and refers to an alternative interpretation proposed by Morris, JPTS 1893, 4. My rendering accords with Spk’s comment: “They throw (pakhippeyyuṃ) bear bile or fish bile over its nostrils.” Spk-pṭ glosses pakhippeyyuṃ here with osiñceyyuṃ, “they sprinkle.” Horner renders “as if they were to throw a bladder at a fierce dog’s nose” (BD 5:263).

  336 Spk: When bandits grab hold of his mother in the wilderness and say they will release her only if he tells a deliberate lie, even then he won’t tell a deliberate lie. The same method in the other cases.18. Rāhulasaṃyutta

  337 Rāhula was the Buddha’s son. He became a novice (sāmaṇera) at the age of seven, during the Buddha’s first visit to his native city of Kapilavatthu after his enlightenment. Other discourses spoken to him are: MN Nos. 61, 62, and 147 (the latter = 35:121) and Sn II, 11 (pp. 58-59).

  338 Spk explains the three “grips” (gāha) of “mine, I, and my self” exactly as in n. 155. It takes dispassion (virāga) to denote the four paths, liberation (vimutti) the four fruits. Spk does not comment on nibbindati, “experiences revulsion,” but the commentaries consistently identify the corresponding noun nibbidā with strong insight knowledge (see above n. 69).

  339 To the four primary elements of the form aggregate (cattāro mahābhūtā) the suttas sometimes add the space element (ākāsadhātu)—which (according to the commentaries) represents derived form (upādāya rūpa)—and the consciousness element (viññāṇadhātu), which represents the entire mental side of existence. For a detailed analysis of all six elements, see MN III 240,17-243,10.

  340 Spk: In regard to this body with consciousness (imasmiṃ saviññāṇake kāye): he shows his own conscious body. And in regard to all external signs (bahiddhā ca sabbanimittesu): the conscious body of others and insentient objects. Or alternatively: by the former expression he shows his own sentient organism and that of others (reading with Se attano ca parassa ca saviññāṇakam eva); by the latter, external form not bound up with sense faculties (bahiddhā anindriyabaddharūpaṃ ). (The compound) ahaṅkāramamaṅkāramānānusayā is to be resolved thus: I-making (ahaṅkāra), mine-making (mamaṅkāra), and the underlying tendency to conceit (mānānusayā). (So the text in Be and Se, but if, as seems likely, the plural termination derives from the asamāhāra compound, after resolution the last member should be mānānusayo.) “I-making” is regarded as the function of wrong view (the view of self), “mine-making” of craving. The root conceit is the conceit “I am” (asmimāna), so conceit is also responsible for “I-making.”

  341 This elevenfold classification of each of the five aggregates is analysed in detail at Vibh 1-12.

  342 Spk: Has transcended discrimination (vidhā samatikkantaṃ): has fully gone beyond the different kinds of conceit; is peaceful (santaṃ): by the appeasement of defilements; and well liberated (suvimuttaṃ): fully liberated from defilements.19. Lakkhaṇasaṃyutta

  343 The series of suttas included in this saṃyutta also occurs at Vin III 104-8. Spk: The Venerable Lakkhaṇa, a great disciple, had been one of the thousand jaṭila ascetics who received higher ordination by the “Come, bhikkhu” utterance (see Vin I 32-34). He attained arahantship at the end of the Discourse on Burning (35:28). Since he possessed a Brahmā-like body that was endowed with auspicious marks (lakkhaṇasampanna), perfect in all respects, he was called “Lakkhaṇa.”

  344 Spk: The reason for Moggallāna’s smile, as is mentioned in the text below, is that he saw a being reborn in the world of ghosts whose body was a skeleton. Having seen such a form of individual existence, he should have felt compassion, so why did he display a smile? Because he recollected his own success in gaining release from the prospect of such forms of rebirth and the success of the Buddha-knowledge; for the Buddhas teach such things through their own direct cognition (paccakkhaṃ katvā) and h
ave thoroughly penetrated the element of phenomena (suppaṭividdhā buddhānaṃ dhammadhātu).

  345 I follow Be: vitudenti vitacchenti virājenti. Se reads vitudanti only, while Ee has vitacchenti vibhajenti. Spk comments only on vitudenti: “They ran and moved here and there, piercing him again and again with their metal beaks as sharp as sword blades.” According to Spk, the vultures, etc., were actually yakkhas (yakkhagijjhā, yakkhakākā, yakkhakulalā); for such a form does not come into the visual range of natural vultures, etc.

  346 Evarūpo pi nāma satto bhavissati evarūpo pi nāma yakkho bhavissati evarūpo pi nāma attabhāvapaṭilābho bhavissati. Spk: In saying this Moggallāna shows his sense of urgency in the Dhamma, arisen out of compassion for such beings.The expression attabhāvapaṭilābho, which literally means “acquisition of selfhood,” is used idiomatically to denote a concrete form of individual identity. Attabhāva sometimes occurs in a more restricted sense with reference to the physical body, for instance at Ud 54,17-19.

  347 Spk: As a residual result of that same kamma (tass’ eva kammassa vipākāvasesena): of that “kamma (to be experienced) in subsequent lives” (aparāpariyakamma) accumulated by different volitions. For the rebirth in hell is produced by a certain volition, and when its result is exhausted rebirth is produced among the ghosts, etc., having as its object the residue of that kamma or the sign of the kamma (see CMA 5:35-38). Therefore, because that rebirth comes about through correspondence of kamma or correspondence of object (kammasabhāgatāya ārammaṇasabhāgatāya vā), it is called “a residual result of that same kamma.” It is said that at the time he passed away from hell, a heap of flesh-less cows’ bones became the sign (i.e., the object of the last conscious process, which then becomes the object of the rebirth-consciousness). Thus he became a ghost (in the form of) a skeleton, as if making manifest to the wise the hidden kamma.

  348 Spk: He had earned his living for many years as a cattle butcher who seasoned pieces of beef, dried them, and sold the dried meat. When he passed away from hell, a piece of meat became the sign and he became a ghost (in the form of) a piece of meat.

  349 Spk: He was an executioner who inflicted many punishments on state criminals and then finally shot them with arrows. After arising in hell, when he was subsequently reborn through the residual result of that kamma the state of being pierced by an arrow became the sign and therefore he became a ghost with body-hairs of arrows.

  350 In Be and Se, this sutta is entitled Sūciloma and the following sutta Dutiya-sūciloma, while in Ee the former is entitled Sūci-sārathi and the latter Sūcako. In Be and Se, the miserable spirit in the former sutta is said to have been a sūta, glossed by Spk as assadamaka, a horse trainer, while in Ee he is said to have been a sūcaka. In all three eds., the spirit in the following sutta is said to have been a sūcaka, glossed by Spk as pesuññakāraka, a slanderer. I follow Be and Se both with respect to the titles of the two suttas and the former identities of the tormented spirits.

  351 Spk: He was a slanderer who divided people from each other and brought them to ruin and misery by his insinuations. Therefore, as people were divided by him through his insinuations (tena sūcetvā manussā bhinnā), to experience the pain of being pierced by needles (sūcīhi bhedanadukkhaṃ paccanubhotuṃ), he took that kamma itself as the sign and became a needle-haired ghost (sūcilomapeta). (The aptness of the retribution is established by the similarity between the Pāli word sūci, needle, and the verb sūceti, to insinuate, to indicate.)

  352 Gāmakūṭa, lit. “village cheat.” Spk: He secretly accepted bribes and, committing an evident wrong by his skewed judgements, misallocated the belongings of others. Hence his private parts were exposed. Since he caused an unbearable burden for others by imposing harsh penalties, his private parts became an unbearable burden for him. And since he was unrighteous (visama) when he should have been righteous, his private parts became uneven (visama) and he had to sit on them.Interestingly, Ee (apparently based on SS) here reads dhaṅkā for crows in place of kākā in the other eds. See I, v. 808d and I, n. 566.

  353 Spk: Having experienced contact with another man’s wife, having enjoyed vile pleasure, sensual pleasure, he has been reborn in circumstances where, as a counterpart of that kamma, he experiences contact with filth and undergoes pain.

  354 I read the first word of this sentence with Se and SS as ato, as against the exclamation aho in Be and Ee.

  355 Spk: She cheated on her husband and enjoyed contact with other men. Thus she fell away from pleasant contact and, as a counterpart of that kamma, was reborn as a flayed woman to experience painful contact.

  356 Maṅgulitthi. Spk glosses: maṅgulin ti virūpaṃ duddasikaṃ bībhacchaṃ. She deceived people, accepting scents and flowers, telling them they could become rich by performing certain rites. She caused the multitude to accept a bad view, a wrong view. Thus she herself became foul-smelling because of taking scents and flowers, and ugly because of making them accept a bad view.

  357 Spk explains uppakkaṃ okiliniṃ okirinaṃ thus: She was lying on a bed of coals, trembling and turning around as she was cooked, therefore she was roasting (uppakkā), i.e., with body cooked by the hot fire. She was sweltering (okilinī ), with a sweating body; and sooty (okirinī), completely covered with soot.

  358 Spk: While using the four requisites provided by the people out of faith, being unrestrained in bodily and verbal conduct and corrupt in his means of livelihood, he went about playfully to his heart’s content. The same method of explanation applies in the following cases too.20. Opammasaṃyutta

  359 The simile of the peaked house, common in the Nikāyas, recurs in SN at 22:102 (III 156,3-5), 45:141, 46:7, 48:52. Spk glosses “diligent” as “constantly yoked with mindfulness” (appamattā ti satiyā avippavāse ṭhitā hutvā).

  360 This theme is treated in greater detail at 56:102-31. Spk says that the devas are included here along with humans, so that the statement should be understood to mean that few are reborn among humans and devas.

  361 The simile is also at Vin II 256,16-18 and AN IV 278,22-25, but with a different application. Corehi kumbhatthenakehi is lit. “pot-thief bandits.” Spk explains: Having entered the houses of others, having surveyed the scene by the light of a lamp, desiring to steal the belongings of others, they make a lamp in a jar (ghaṭe) and enter. Even mud-sprites (paṃsupisācakā) assail those devoid of development of lovingkindness, how much more then powerful nonhumans? Amanussa, lit. “nonhuman,” usually denotes a malevolent spirit or demon.

  362 Be and Se: okkhāsataṃ; Ee: ukkhāsataṃ. Spk: = mahāmukhaukkhalīnaṃ sataṃ. Spk-pṭ: = mahāmukhānaṃ mahantakoḷumbānaṃ sataṃ. The reference is to large pots used to boil a great quantity of rice. AN IV 394-96 makes the same point somewhat differently, and adds that developing the perception of impermanence even for a fingersnap is still more fruitful than developing a mind of lovingkindness.

  363 Spk: Gadduhanamattan ti goduhanamattaṃ (lit. “the extent of a cow’s milking”), that is, the extent of time needed to take one pull on a cow’s teat. Or else (gadduhanamattaṃ =) gandhaūhanamattaṃ (lit. “the extent of a scent-sniff”), that is, the extent of time needed to take a single sniff of a piece of incense picked up with two fingers. If, for even such a short time, one is able to develop a mind of lovingkindness, pervading all beings in immeasurable world systems with a wish for their welfare, this is more fruitful even than that alms given three times in a single day.

  364 Spk explains the three verbs thus: paṭileṇeti, having struck the top, bending it like a cotton wick, one makes it fuse together as if it were a strand of resin; paṭikoṭṭeti, having struck it in the middle and bent it back, or having struck it along the blade, one makes the two blades fuse together; paṭivaṭṭeti, turning it around as if making a cotton wick (?), one twirls it around for a long time, unravels it, and again twirls it around.

  365 This sutta also appears in the introduction to Ja No. 476, which turns upon the same theme. In this story the Bodhisatt
a, in his incarnation as the swift goose Javanahaṃsa, performs the remarkable feat to be described just below.Spk explains the stock description of the archers thus: Firm-bowed archers (daḷhadhammā dhanuggahā): archers with firm bows (daḷhadhanuno issāsā). A “firm bow” is called the strength of two thousand. “The strength of two thousand” means that a weight of metal, such as bronze or lead, etc. (used for the arrowhead), bound to the string when the bow is lifted (for the shot), is released from the earth when the bow is grasped by its handle and drawn back the full length of the arrow. Trained (Se and Ee: sikkhitā; Be: susikkhitā, “well trained”): they have studied the craft in their teacher’s circle for ten or twelve years. Dexterous (katahatthā): one who has simply studied a craft is not yet dexterous, but these are dexterous, having achieved mastery over it. Experienced (katūpāsanā): they have displayed their craft in the king’s court, etc.

  366 Āyusaṅkhārā. Spk: This is said with reference to the physical life faculty (rūpajīvitindriya); for this perishes even faster than that. But it is not possible to describe the breakup of formless phenomena (i.e., of mental states, because according to the Abhidhamma they break up sixteen times faster than material phenomena).